Maha El Nabawi

With his recent track, “LM3ALLEM” garnering upwards of 50 million views on YouTube and growing, Moroccan pop-singer Saad Lamjarred (سعد المجرد) is hard to avoid at this point. The track and video are kitchy, almost hipster-tinted aesthetically but what Lamjarred seems to do well is interrupt his pop lyrics with infectious dance music breakdowns as heard in the grimy, dub-fall out around minute 1:42.

In 2012, amidst the rise of the pseudo-romantic, gruesome chaos and political playing field taking over Egypt, Youssra El Hawary entered into the screens of hundreds of thousands of Egyptian youth with her own personal rebellion, and her accordion. In her track, “El Soor,” released in 2012, we find Youssra singing a sardonic song with her accordion about the walls mushrooming all over downtown Cairo under SCAFs rule in a post-Mubarak landscape.

Egyptian electronic band, Soopar Lox released their synth-laced debut album, “Semsesizer”, this month with rhythm, textures, and Arabic/English vocals that evoke a sun kissed beach somewhere in the Red Sea. After attending many of their invigorating shows live, it’s exciting to see the band recording and releasing their work (and for free!) while finding a unique identity within the wide spectrum of electronic music from the region.